Author : Richard Russo
Pages : 284
Rating : 4/5
It’s been a while since I read this novel, but I still remember it as being one told with great sympathetic skill. Let me explain that. Most “contemporary” novels deal with day-to-day life and present issues. There are husbands and wives, and parents and children, their lives fraught with complexity and hidden motivations and the plain old drudgery of not losing the battle. Generally I can do without such stories. However, told as Mr. Russo tells it, sketched with such an astute eye for detail, and compassion, a story such as this comes alive. And he is sympathetic, not just of the good characters but of the bad ones too, fleshing them out with kindness and patience. There many characters, so it is a broad canvas, but the reader come to know each of them quite well.
Empire Falls is about a little town of the same name, where our lead protagonist Miles Roby is manager and cook of the Empire Grill. The Empire Grill is owned by Francine Whiting, a rich woman who doesn’t quite like Miles. Miles is about to be divorced from Janine, and has a teenage daughter Tick. Then there is David, Miles’s brother, and Max, his father. Miles is quite a likeable character along with his daughter Tick. He is amiable to most people (even the nasty ones) and has tons of patience. The butt of snarky jokes, and the not-so-subtle put-downs of his patrons, even he realizes that he is on the losing end.
Along with the main story which hinges around a Miles who is trying to make do with whatever life throws at him, there are several sub-plots which focus by turns on his daughter, his wife, his brother, the bullying Police Chief and his son, and their problems. The entire cast floats around their little, dying town and the Empire Grill, which is how we are introduced to them.
This book is about anguish, about perceived past sins which, when they accumulate, make people meaner. Mrs. Whiting the aging wealthy owner of the Empire Grill is at the crux of it. At the receiving end is Miles, who is tethered to the Grill in the hopes that it will one day be his. You know that Miles would rather be anywhere but in Empire Falls. He tried to get away when he was younger, but family ties (and Mrs. Whiting) brought him back, for what was presumably an year. That year changed into a lifetime. Miles is still stuck at a dead-end job, in a decrepit eatery, with very little hopes of getting out. His first love escaped him, and he is about to be divorced from his second. But bound by “duty” and his propensity for doing the right thing, will Miles ever escape his fate?
Empire Falls is engaging (I could not put it down) and makes you successfully root for Miles and his loved ones. A lovely book, to be savored, this one is highly recommended.
